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     We’ve all heard, “Hell is going to be one big party with my friends,” meaning perpetual drinking, gambling, dope, fornication – all vices infinitum.  It’s as if hell is a continuation of irresponsible, raucous sinful lives after death.  Is this actually the reality of hell?

     In the last article we read that two categories of people will be punished eternally: (1) Those who have no knowledge of God.  (2) Those who have heard the gospel and refuse to obey Jesus (2 Thessalonians 1:6- 9).  Logically only the faithful (obedient) citizen of Jesus’ kingdom will not be eternally punished.  “Eternal” punishment!  What does that mean?
     The Old Testament refers to an afterlife, but the details of reward and punishment, although relatively brief, are found in the New Testament.  Regarding punishment, Jesus rebuked the hypocritical Pharisees, “You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how shall you escape the judgment of hell?”  Is this “hell” the eternal punishment?  What is hell and its eternal punishment?

     Jesus used the Greek word “gehenna” as a metaphor to give us an idea of what hell is like.  Gehenna is simply translated “hell.”  Gehenna was a valley at Jerusalem’s southern city limits, where all the garbage, dead animals, etc., were burned.  The burning and stench was perpetual and never ended, thus Jesus used gehenna to describe hell – eternal punishment.  The imagery of hell is a place of fire and pain (Matthew 8:1-2; 13:41-42, 50; 25:30, 46; Luke 16:24; Romans 2:8-9; Revelation 14:10-11; 20:20).
     In my teenage wisdom, I sprinkled gasoline on a cedar hedge we had removed and threw a match which landed short.  Picking it up, thereby lifting it into the fumes caused a momentary flash – my arms were severely burnt.  Although my mother packed my arms in ice water, for four or five hours I suffered excruciating pain, screaming continuously as if my arms were still on fire.  There was no relief, making it the longest hours of my life.  It is the imagery of fire that God uses to tell us of the pain, yea constant anguish, a person’s spirit will suffer in hell.  Imagine if such terrible pain lasted forever – eternally.

     Jesus also used the words, “outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth,” to describe what it is to be cast out from God’s presence (Matthew 25:30).  Darkness – where there is no light, where one can’t see, being completely alone, thus experiencing a frightening insecurity.  “Outer” darkness is where the darkness has such a dreaded hold that one can not be rescued or released from it.  Since God is light, this “outer darkness” of hell is where He is not and never will be.
     “Weeping” comes from the word “to lament” and is the expression of a deep sorrow and grieving over a great loss.  In this case the loss is eternal life in God’s presence.
     Biblical scholars agree that the gnashing of teeth is the grating of the teeth together.  But they are divided as to the cause of the grating.  Gnashing of teeth is the natural reaction to tremendous torment and also from rage against someone.  In either case, neither are pleasant and both involve extreme emotional stress in one’s spirit.  Further, this is eternal.  Imagine being in continual rage or torment.
     Nearly three decades ago, I suffered deep mental depression.  Depression is not physical pain, but mental anguish.  It was an indescribable sense of despair, which at times was so great that, having lost all hope, I would ask God to let me die in my sleep.  The feeling was like being in a deep dark pit where one could see the opening above, and desperately wanted to get out but could not – total hopelessness!  My friend who had suffered multiple diseases throughout her life, was dying of cancer.  She said that of all the physical pain she had suffered in her life, none compared to the terrifying anguish of mental depression.

     Jesus’ descriptions indicate that hell is a place of total and permanent separation from God, where a person is completely alone in terrible mental anguish, fright, pain and a sense of hopeless desperation which will after a billion years, is just the beginning... with no end!  Eternal Punishment!

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